Author's Note: Hello, my name is MarioFanaticXV. This story isn’t copyrighted, so do what you please with it! I would, however, like for anyone that uses this on their website to Email me, just so I can check it out and give you thanks (see below).
Anyway, this story is about the two greatest video game characters (in my opinion) going head to head against each other. If you’re looking for fun, you’re in luck! Looking for laughs, we’ve got those too! Looking for an action-packed adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat… you’re still in the right place! Looking for a romantic love story- sorry, not going to happen here!
Before we get started, I would like
to thank:
· ClarKent- My computer teacher
who helped me with editing
· Dad- He knows more about practical
computer applications then I do
· gamer62490- A personal
friend of mine that contributed a nickname for Ivo that I used in Chapter
1: “stupid egghead”
· Lemmy Koopa- Creator, owner,
and ruler of Lemmy’s Land, his website is a focused on fan fics that inspired
me to write this one, but certainly has a LOT more then just that; visit
it at www.lemmykoopa.com
· Metal Yoshi- For letting me
request that Lemmy put his song, The Letter P, as the music for the final
chapter (only if read on www.lemmykoopa.com)
· Mom- Helped me with editing
and encouraged me with my story writing even though she strongly dislikes
video games
· Miyamoto- Creator of Mario
· Nintendo- Company that owns
Mario
· Sega- Company that owns Sonic
· Yuji Naka- Creator of Sonic
Prologue: Tales of Time and Space
It was a dark and stormy night in the
Mushroom Kingdom. The new Kastle of Koopa had just been completed, and
Bowser had stolen the Power Stars. Mario knew what he had to do. He set
a Bob-omb down in front of the steel door that protected the sinister fortress,
and stepped back into the bushes, where his friend Yoshi was hiding.
The weather on Mobius was no different. Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails had just finished transforming the seven Chaos Emeralds into the Super Emeralds when Dr. Ivo Robotnik stole the Master Emerald again. Sonic knew that he had to use the power of the Super Emeralds once again. He allowed them to do their job, and hence, changed into Hyper Sonic.
“Wait right here,” Sonic told his friends.
“Words to live by,” Knuckles joked.
“This will only take a second,” Sonic
reassured them as he bashed through the steel doors. “Hey, Egghead!” Sonic
taunted, knowing Robotnik could hear him through security cameras. “Catch
me… if you can!”
“You ready, Yoshi?” Mario asked.
Yoshi gave a grunt that showed that he was scared, but would help anyway.
“Don’t worry, we’ve done this a thousand times!” Mario reassured his dinosaur friend.
With that, they entered the castle. Inside, they saw gigantic statues and pictures of Bowser. This came to Mario as no surprise, since he knew that if Bowser’s cunning was as great as his ego, the evil turtle would be invincible.
“No welcoming committee?” Mario teased.
“Well, guess that means that there must be a trap upstairs. Let’s go disappoint
them!”
Sonic flew up the stairs, zooming at the speed of light. When he reached the top, he saw a small army’s worth of robots. Sonic knew how to take care of them in one blow.
“Light attack!!!” he yelled.
Once Mario and Yoshi reached the top of the stairs, they saw all seven Koopalings waiting for them in ambush.
“You know what, Yoshi?” Mario asked as he looked towards Yoshi. “I think that it’s time to use one of those Starmen!” Yoshi gave out a grunt in agreement as he took off one of his boots and took out a hidden Starman.
While all of his siblings hid in their shells, Morton asked, “Why are you glowing? Shining? Lit up? Imitating a Christmas light? Emitting photons of light?”
Ludwig, still in his shell, said, “I tought him zat vun!”
Mario easily rammed through Morton with no effort at all.
“Yoshi scared!” Yoshi complained. “Yoshi no have fight power! Yoshi no fight Bowser!”
“It’s okay, you went a lot farther then
usual,” Mario told Yoshi. “Good job!” And with that, Mario left to fight
Bowser.
“That all you got, Robuttnik?” Sonic taunted. “Really, this whole takeover the world scheme of yours that I’m always having to stop is getting real old, real fast… Ever think of trying anything new? Maybe using your talents to solve world hunger or something?”
“Quiet, hedgehog!” Robotnik quirked. “Witness your undoing: the Antimatter Manipulation Ray!”
“Hate to tell you this, Doc,” Sonic said sarcastically, “but I was the machine’s undoing, not the other way around. Look for yourself!” he continued while pointing up.
“You fool!” Robotnik panicked. “You destroyed a machine that manipulates the time-space continuum!”
“Big deal, I’ve stopped much worse machines then that. Now, are you going to go to prison peacefully, or am I going to have to chase you again?”
“You don’t get it, do you? When you destroy a machine that manipulates the time-space continuum without shutting it down properly beforehand, you create a tear in the very fabric of time and space!”
“In English?”
“Look for yourself!”
Sonic stared in horror at the one thing
that not even he could outrun, even at the speed of light…
“Bowser, relinquish the Power Stars!” Mario ordered the evil turtle, knowing he would have to force his point.
“Gwarharhar!” Bowser snarled. “Look above you, Mario! The cage that holds the Power Stars has a special function: when destroyed, it will create a quantum entity! Gwarharhar!”
“What does that mean?”
“I have no idea, I was just quoting Ludwig.”
“Okay then, can we get this over with? I told Toad I’d help him improve his kart.”
“Gwarharhar! Prepare to witness what a Christmas ham feels like! Gwarharhar!”
After a short battle, Mario grabbed Bowser by the tail and threw him into the wall. Bowser bounced off the wall and into the machine. “Mommy!” the spiky shelled turtle whimpered.
“Mamamia…” was all Mario could say as
he witnessed a black hole forming…
Chapter 1: Bad Beginnings
Author's Note: Before I continue, I
reassure any and all readers that no other chapter will be so pathetically
short.
The Kastle of Koopa lay in rubble. All was there, but it was scattered around in many pieces. A strange tower, unfamiliar to Bowser or his style of evil fortresses, also lay in waste, the irreversibly damaged parts mixed in with those of the castle. Bowser was bawling in tears, though he would have never done so if he had known that another being of darkness was watching him at the time.
“I can’t believe this!” the giant turtle yelled. “He did it again! *sniffle* I *whimper* can’t *whine* accept *sob* another *cry* failure! I don’t know where I went wrong. I have superior air troops, land forces, and a better navy then the Mushroom Kingdom, yet I’m defeated by a single plumber time and time again!” Bowser heard something moving, and quickly stopped crying. (He had gotten very good at doing this over the years.)
“No! Pesky hedgehog! Foiled again! I’ve had whole armies at my knees, and somehow, this, this, rodent manages to defeat me every single time!” said the stupid egghead.
Bowser approached the mad scientist slowly, and roared. Then he laughed and greeted Robotnik. “I couldn’t help but overhearing, and it seems like we may be able to help each other.”
“Go on, I’m listening…” Ivo said.
As the conversation went on, both villains explained everything that the heroes of their own universe had done to prevent them from taking control of the world numerous times, and how their enormous armies of underlings had fallen to just a single hero and a few sidekicks. Finally, they reached an agreement.
“An alliance, to rid the world of these pests?” Dr. Eggman asked.
Bowser laughed maniacally and replied, “An alliance! Together, our armies will overwhelm Mario and Sonic with sheer numbers, and crush them!”
“Actually, I have a better idea, and we won’t even have to wait to build up our armies again!” Robotnik said, and then proceeded to explain his plan to Bowser.
Meanwhile, in the Forest of Illusion,
just barely within sight of the ruins of the evil strongholds, another
dark figure was watching the whole conversation, one that had been waiting
almost a decade for this opportunity. “This is it… Finally, our revenge
will be complete!” it said, as it vanished into the shadows.
Chapter 2: Double Deception
Sonic awoke on a hill in the Forest of Illusion and surmised that he must have been unconscious. He stood up, looked around, and realized that he had no idea where he was. He then remembered what had happened.
“The Master Emerald!” Sonic shouted. “It’s gone! Robotnik must have taken it!”
Sonic had lost the Chaos Emeralds when he was knocked out. He quickly looked for Miles and Knuckles, knowing that he would need their help.
After finding his friends unconscious,
but otherwise fine, he briefly searched the area. Sonic stood in awe when
he saw a construction site with thousands of turtles working. “Why do I
have the feeling this isn’t Mobiüs?” he asked himself sarcastically
as he looked at and then rushed over to the construction site.
“What just happened?” Mario asked, finding himself in Princess Toadstool’s castle.
“Mario!” Toad shouted, happy to see that his friend was okay. “Glad to see that you’re awake. I’ll go get the princess.”
“Wait… Did I lose to Bowser?” Mario asked, still unsure of what had just happened to him.
“Of course not!” Toad replied. “But when you beat him, his castle must have exploded or something… and… well… I don’t really know but-”
“Don’t worry, I have the answers you
need,” said Proffessor Elvin Gadd, a good friend of Mario and Luigi. “It
seems that something very rare and amazing happened today,” the eccentric
genius started off…
Sonic searched the construction site, running around, until he saw a rainbow-haired turtle with a spiked shell riding on a ball who seemed to be giving orders.
“Excuse me, I’m a bit lost,” Sonic started out. “I’m Sonic the Hedgehog, hero of the Freedom Fighters against Robotnik, and I kind of got lost.”
The turtle couldn’t hear everything, as the construction site was very noisy. “Sonic the what? Freedom Fighters? Woah! You lost me there, I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about,” said the turtle. “Hey! Wait a minute! You’re a Porcupo! An ugly one, but a Porcupo nonetheless. The name is Lemmy Koopa, but you can call me boss. You need to see Daddy King! I’ll show you.”
Lemmy, unaware of his father’s deal, started talking about his brothers and his sister. He explained to Sonic how things worked there. Lemmy didn’t mention anything about Mario, as he thought that Sonic already knew about the war.
“This is your stop,” Lemmy said when they had reached a room that had been completed already. “I’ve got to get back to work, or Daddy King is going to kill me!”
“All right, thanks, I think,” Sonic said, disappointed that he had found out all about being part of this Koopa Klan, but none of what he was trying to find out. He walked into the room and saw Bowser talking to nine Porcupos.
“There you are!” said one Porcupo. “Spiny! You’re late! What have you been doing?”
“Hey! That isn’t Spiny!” said another. “Spiny isn’t that tall, and he certainly isn’t discolored. There is no way that ugly blue thing is Spiny.”
“You’re Sonic!” Bowser shouted. He then turned to the Porcupos and smiled. “And as I was saying, all new employees are entitled to hazard pay, free living quarters, and of course, free dental. If you have any questions, take it up with my son, Roy. He’ll explain everything.”
The Porcupos smiled happily and left. They had no idea why Bowser was acting so nice all of a sudden, but they couldn’t care less because they were getting hazard pay. Bowser turned to Sonic and smiled.
“I’ve heard great things about you,” Bowser started out, “and we really could use the help of a great hero. Allow me to explain…”
Bowser spun a lie with great detail.
He told of the many times that the Koopa Klan had fallen to the tyrant
of the Mushroom Kingdom known as Peach, with her army lead by the evil
General Mario. By time Bowser was finished, Sonic saw nothing he could
do, but help...
Gadd had led Mario into his lab, which had recently been relocated to the castle, and into a presentation room.
“You’ll have to excuse this, I only had a few hours in which to program this,” Gadd said as he picked up a remote control and pressed a button. After about two seconds, a hologram of many swirling masses of energy filled the entire room.
“This is a model of the multiverse,”
the professor began, “and this is the universe you are from.”
Gadd pointed to a universe and it zoomed
in, showing the Milky Way, then the Solar System, then Earth itself.
“What does this have to do with what happened to me earlier today?” Mario asked.
“Don’t rush into things!” Gadd scolded Mario. “You’ll still be young when I finish.” He touched the holographaic Earth and the hologram resumed the form of the multiverse. The professor then touched another universe and the Mushroom Kingdom was visible.
“This is where we are now. When you fought with Bowser, things must have gotten too rough, and you broke a machine that manipulated the time-space continuum. This created a black hole at that exact point in time and space.”
On cue, a black hole replaced the picture of the Mushroom Kingdom.
“Mamamia!!!” Mario yelled. “Wait a minute, back up. If I made a black hole, wouldn’t we all be inside of it right now?”
“No, because that was only one of two black holes that now exist at the same exact point in time and space.”
“Two things in the same place at the same time?! How is that possible? I knew I should have gone to a four-year college, but no, my income wouldn’t allow anything more then a two-year course!”
“They are in separate dimensions! They exist in two separate universes. One sucked things up from a universe known as Mobiüs and shot out the contents into the second black hole, formed here in the Mushroom Kingdom.”
“Mobiüs? Where’s that?”
“Right here, but in a different universe,” said a man with an icepack on his head. “My name is Doctor Ivo Eggman Robotnik, and I’m from Mobiüs myself.”
“The name is Mario, pleasure to meet you,” the heroic plumber said.
“Are you ready for my presentation yet, Professor?” Robotnik asked.
“Any time you are.”
The professor handed Robotnik the remote, and Robotnik pressed some buttons.
“These are terrorists that plague my world,” Robotnik said as the holograms showed Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. “Many times I’ve tried to stop them with my robots, and every time I barely escaped with my life.” Robotnik pretended to fall down and said, “I’m sorry, I’m really tired. Traveling through a worm hole can take a lot out of someone, you know. This first one is their leader, Sonic the Hedgehog. This next one is a fox capable of flight named Miles “Tails” Prower. And this one, lastly, is Knuckles the Echidna, and-” Robotnik stopped and let out a grunt of pain while holding his head as though he had a migrane.
“I’m terribly sorry to trouble you with this, but after all I’ve heard about you, I figured you might be able to help me out.”
“Of course!” Mario agreed. “That’s what I do, but you should get some rest. I’ll just come back tomorrow. Besides, I’m a bit tired myself.”
And with that, both of our heroes were
unknowingly ready to help an evil mastermind.
Chapter 3: Objects of Power Lost
The next morning was nice and sunny out. Parakarry had already delivered the mail by the time Mario was awake.
Mario wasn’t nervous; he never was, not since the very first time when he'd fought Donkey Kong to save his old girlfriend, Pauline. Luigi, however, well, let’s just say he didn’t get much sleep that night after Mario explained everything. For some reason, Luigi had never got over his fear of evil tyrants, and was always scared of Bowser just as much as he and his brother had been the first time they'd met the dragon-like turtle. Normally, Luigi stayed behind, but Mario figured he would need someone to help him fight off Sonic and the rest of the terrorists from Mobiüs. Normally, Yoshi would go with Mario if no one else, but Yoshi had gone on vacation after he brought Mario back from Bowser’s castle. So, Luigi would have to go.
“You usually get by just fine on your own,” Luigi complained while Mario tried to pull him out of bed. “And besides, who’s going to watch the house?”
“Mamamia, you’re stubborn today!” Mario knew his brother couldn’t be talked into going on an adventure with a bribe, so Mario thought of something else instead, “Fine then, I’ll just show this picture of you to Daisy!” Mario held up a picture of Luigi sucking his thumb while hiding from Bowser.
“She’s not even here,” Luigi said while holding onto the bed.
“She visits often, you know that,” Mario replied. “Besides, it doesn’t matter when she sees it.”
“Fine, but if I see any more fire-breathing turtles, I’m gone!” Luigi said. “So what happened yesterday, anyway?”
The two of them had breakfast as Mario explained everything that had happened the day before. By noon, the two of them were in the eccentric professor’s laboratory. “Welcome, welcome! Good to see the both of you could make it,” Gadd greeted them. “Now, Luigi, do you want the presentation, or has Mario filled you in already?”
“Mario already explained everything, just please say I won’t have to battle any ghosts,” Luigi said, looking at the Poltergust 3000 hanging on the wall.
“After all the ghosts you’ve fought, I’m surprised that you would be worried about that.” Gadd shook his head. “But so much as I know, no, you shouldn’t need the Poltergust 3000.”
“Greetings, Mario and Luigi,” a robotic voice said from the back of the lab. “How goes your travels?”
“FLUDD? Is that you?” Mario asked. “Where are you?”
“I am currently under a sheet, waiting for the professor to finish upgrading me with a program that will allow me to-” FLUDD started out as he was interrupted by his inventor.
“Now come on, FLUDD!” Gadd scolded his machine. “You know that no one, not even the Mario Bros, are allowed to hear about an invention until it is completed.”
“I apologize for neglecting protocol,” FLUDD responded.
“Think nothing of it, just don’t do
it in the future,” Gadd stated. “Now, where is the doctor? He said that
he had something important to tell all of us.”
“Where am I?” Tails asked as he awoke to the sound of hammers, buzz saws, and other power tools. He looked around and saw that he was lieing on a bed in a room with stone walls. He also saw Knuckles standing by a door.
“Glad to see you’re okay,” Knuckles told his friend. “We’re in a strange dimension known as the Mushroom Kingdom. Sonic met these intelligent turtles called Koopas led by their king, Bowser. Bowser told us that he’s been trying to undo a tyrant’s grip on the Mushroom Kingdom. This tyrant is a cold-hearted princess named Peach that has a small, yet very powerful army. The main threat is an evil general named Mario.”
“Where’s Sonic?” Tails asked.
“Looking for the Chaos Emeralds and the Power Stars,” Knuckles answered.
“The Power Stars?” Tails echoed. “What are those?”
“Basically the Chaos Emeralds of this
dimension,” Knuckles tried to explain. “I don’t know much about them, but
I do know that they can tilt the tide of battle either way, depending on
who holds them. We’re only missing three of them, although there are 150
total.”
“Sorry for the delay,” Robotnik apologized as he entered the laboratory.
“It’s okay,” Luigi said. “I’m certainly not in a hurry to give myself a heart attack.”
“I had to find as many of these as I could,” Robotnik continued as he held up a Chaos Emerald. “I could only find two of them, unfortunately, and the Master Emerald is nowhere to be found!”
“This looks bad,” Luigi said, “and I don’t even know what a Chaos Emerald is yet!”
“Oh! Yes, that’s right, I’m sorry, let me explain,” Robotnik started off. “There are seven Chaos Emeralds and a Master Emerald that can negate or multiply their powers. Each Chaos Emerald possesses incredible amounts of energy, and when all seven are used, one can become virtually unstoppable! Luckily, the Master Emerald prevents the Chaos Emeralds from staying together for too a period of time, so Sonic has never been able to fully utilize their effect.
“However, if the Master Emerald and all seven Chaos Emeralds were to be controlled by the same person, I shudder to think of how literal the name ‘Chaos Emerald’ would become.”
“Okie-dokie,” Mario said. “So what do we do with these Chaos Emeralds?”
“Well, I’ll show you something you can do to help bring Sonic’s speed down enough for you to fight him,” Robotnik said, and then continued to explain how to activate “Chaos Control”.
After that, the two heroes were ready,
and left towards the Koopahari Desert.
“What’s happening?” Sonic asked, appearing out of a blur as usual, “Tails awake yet?”
“I’m fine, Sonic, but what about the Power Stars?” Tails asked. “Knuckles told me you were looking for them along with the Chaos Emeralds.”
“No luck in either department,” Sonic said. “The Mushrooms must have them, so as soon as we figure out who stays and who goes, we’re off!”
“What do you mean 'who stays'?” Knuckles quirked, “Aren’t all three of us going?”
“One of us has to stay here and search for Amy,” Sonic explained, holding up Amy’s Pikopiko hammer. “I found this while looking for the Emeralds in the Forest of Illusion. Tails, you’d probably be best, seeing as you can look for her from the skies, and there’s no way I’m going to let her keep me here.”
“I don’t mind,” Tails agreed. “Besides, someone needs to defend the castle.”
“Fine then, it’s settled,” Knuckles said. “Sonic and I will go launch a counterattack on the Mushrooms while you stay and make sure nothing goes wrong.”
Bowser came into the room at that moment and looked at Tails with a smile. “You okay, little guy?”
Tails shook his head and said, “Yeah, you must be the king, right?”
“Yep, but you can just call me Bowser. I don’t really like any one calling me ‘king’.”
“We were just about to ask you about where Mario is,” Sonic explained. “Got any ideas?”
“I’ve got my Paratroopas on patrol, and they’ve spotted Mario and Luigi coming towards our construction site,” Bowser explained. “The best place to intercept them would be to the north, in the Koopahari Desert.”
“Paratroopas?” Tails pondered. “What’s a Paratroopa?”
“A Koopa with wings,” Bowser explained. “Nothing makes better for a scout than being able to see your enemy from the safety of the skies!”
“I’ve got the experience to prove that one,” Tails laughed. “Good luck, you two!”
“Right, we’re gone!” Sonic said, and
with that, well, he and Knuckles were gone.
Chapter 4: Round One
The two plumbers were traveling through the Koopahari Desert when they decided to stop for a break.
“Hot as ever, right Mario?” Luigi asked, remembering the first time they had crossed these shifting sands. “I remember the first time we met Morton Koopa Junior, just above that rock. I remember seeing that rock from the airship, not the most enjoyable memory… blowing up the airship while we were still on it...”
“Unfortunately, we never got to see if quicksand is really as quick as they say, did we?” Mario joked. “But yes, I do remember that battle, although I don’t remember stopping to view the scenery.”
“Yeah, well, you were the one that actually fought,” Luigi added. “I’m happy with just being a bystander or a distraction.”
Mario heard a rustling in the sands and turned around. “Did you hear that?” he asked his younger brother.
“Hear what?”
“Must just be a sandstorm. Let’s get
going before it picks up,” he said, though he knew that it wasn’t a sandstorm
he'd heard.
“Is that them?” Knuckles asked Sonic after he saw Sonic run out to get a close look at the Mario Bros.
“I’m not sure,” Sonic replied. “I’ll get another quick look at them. Wait here.”
“Sonic! Don’t be so reckless!” Knuckles said, trying to be the voice of reason, although he knew it was hopeless trying to reason with Sonic.
“Yep!” Sonic said. “It’s them, and they
each have a Chaos Emerald!”
The sand picked up all of a sudden and shot into the plumbers’ faces.
“That was not the wind, Mario,” Luigi commented. “Someone’s here!”
“You’re right,” Mario agreed. “Be careful, whoever it is doesn’t seem to be willing to show themselves.”
“It’s too late for my definition of careful,” Luigi complained. “That would have meant staying home and taking the defensive, letting them come to us.”
“Not now, Luigi, it’s time to test out
these Emeralds.”
“You don’t think they know how to use Chaos Control, do they?” Knuckles asked.
“I doubt it,” Sonic said. “You don’t even know how to use Chaos Control.”
In the distance, they heard Mario shout, “Chaos Control!”
“Then again, I could be wrong,” Sonic said. “If they’ve slowed time, this could be a bit tricky.”
Sonic started to charge a spin dash when Knuckles stopped him. “Wait Sonic, I’ve got a plan,” he said. “You go on and lure them back to this spot, I’ll have a surprise waiting for them.”
“Gotcha!” Sonic acknowledged, and rushed off through the short set of dunes that separated the two groups of heroes.
Sonic caught up to the two plumbers and screeched to a halt. “The name is Sonic,” he introduced himself, “and I don’t like what you’re doing to this dimension.”
“We know who you are,” Mario replied, “and I don’t really agree with what you plan on doing either!”
“Enough said!” Sonic shouted as he started to charge a spin dash.
Mario lunged forward quickly with a fist, narrowly missing the blue blur. Again and again he tried, but even with time slowed, Sonic was faster then anything Mario had ever seen before. Sonic quickly came out of the spinning ball and rapidly kicked at Mario, left-right-left-right-left-right, never stopping to recuperate in between attacks. Mario suddenly grabbed one of Sonic’s legs and threw him into a sand dune, although Sonic got right back up. Sonic dashed at Mario with everything he had; Mario didn’t see any way out of this one. Then Mario saw his brother jump on top of Sonic from the rock they were talking about earlier. Mario and Luigi looked each other in the eyes and knew what the other was thinking. Mario charged up his fireballs, while Luigi hit them into Sonic with his Ultra Hammer. Sonic narrowly dodged eleven fireballs, running back a little with each blaze, the Mario Bros. chasing him with each retreating step. Sonic got into position.
“I can’t take them both at the same time; a little help would be nice!” Sonic said, signaling Knuckles.
Knuckles punched at Luigi, who ending up lieing face up in the sand with a black eye. Luigi got up, clapped his hands together, and shot out a bolt of lightning at Knuckles. However, Knuckles quickly jumped over it and then gave Luigi a round of punches second in speed only to Sonic’s kicks. Knuckles jumped up from under a sand dune, tackling Luigi in the process, leaving Mario for Sonic to handle. “I’ve got the green one,” Knuckles said, forgetting the plumbers' names, “the red is all yours!”
Mario was having a rough time. Then Mario saw it, a broken shard from a propeller that had been on the airship so long ago. Mario quickly grabbed and jumped towards the hedgehog, who had now taken an offensive advance towards him. Mario got in close enough, and just as Sonic was about to kick him right in the face, he stabbed Sonic in the leg, making the teenage rodent fall into the grains of sand.
“Yeouch!” Sonic yelled. “Knuckles, they got the better of us this time. As for you two, don’t think we’re just going to give up!”
Knuckles quickly picked up Sonic and ran off.
“Mamamia!” Luigi sighed in relief. “That was too close!”
“Do the bad guys ever stay gone?” Mario asked.
“What about the Smithy guy you told me about?” Luigi asked. “He only tried once, and that was a little over a decade ago!”
“Do not remind me of that,” Mario complained. “Working with Bowser was not my favorite memory. You okay?”
“I’ve got a black eye,” Luigi said, pointing to his right eye, “and my left arm feels like, well, actually, he did so many punches to it, I can’t even feel the pain.”